Still His Brother
by morgana07
Summary: Dean's dealing with the fallout of his new existence when Sam's suddenly jumped & serious injured by demons. He must choose which side of him will win out & what he'll do to not only save his brother but also the aftereffects. *Angry/angsty/****/still protective!Dean & Hurt/limp/sick!Sam* Spoilers from S9 Finale and possibly into S10.
1. Chapter 1

**Still His Brother**

**Summary: **_Dean's dealing with the fallout of his new existence. He's determined to go it alone when he gets a call that drives home the point that he's still more than just the bearer of the First Blade or the Mark of Cain. He's still a brother so when demons jump & seriously injure Sam, Dean must choose which side of him will win or what he'll do to save his brother. *Angry/angsty/****/still protective!Dean & Hurt/limp/sick!Sam* Spoilers from S9 Finale and possibly into S10._

**Warnings: **_This will have harsh to severe language so be aware of this before reading. While it's a Gen based story it's rated the way it is for a reason so if foul language offends you then don't read further. It does not contain the F-word but all other words might be included so be aware of this. _

_Also, it'll have violence in it. Nothing too graphic, most of it's implied or shown in description or dialogue._

**Spoilers/Tags: **_While it's not tagged to anything there may still be some spoilers as this happens after the S9 Finale and may also have mention of some things picked up in spoilers for S10._

**Disclaimer: **_I don't own anything. This is written for fan enjoyment._

**Author Note: **_This plot popped up while I was writing a different genre. It should only be a 2 maybe 3 chapter story. Hope you all enjoy it. Thanks._

**Chapter One **

"Just so we're in full and total understanding. _I_ am _not _one of your run of the mile demons. If you thought I would be then I think by this time and since it's _my_ power wrapped around your goddamn throat right now that you're getting the picture of how the balance of power is going to play. Right?"

Since getting promoted to King of Hell the former Scottish tailor turned Kind of Crossroads deals swore he was getting tossed around more now than he had even before he lost his damn soul centuries ago. Right then he was struggling to counter the power holding him against a wall in a back alley in some small town in Illinois when he it became plain that he had seriously misjudged this situation.

"…Fine!" he gasped, coughing as he was dropped to the ground. "I should've bloody well known you'd be an even bigger pain as whatever the hell you are now than you were when you were a hunter. "I was just making a suggestion and…"

"No, you were commanding and like I've told you I will not be your toy soldier," Dean Winchester turned to lean against the door of the 1967 Chevy Impala that had been his since he turned 17 but he couldn't quite shake the feeling that it felt wrong to drive her now. "You might've tricked me into accepting the blade so I could use the First Blade to kill Abbadon before she tossed you outta Hell. But face it, Crowley. This Mark and the Blade, the fact that something about that combination and whatever else it was that turned me this way after Metatron's blade killed me? It's made me into something immune to you and with just as much or maybe more power than you or your demon buddies so my advice? Stay the hell out of my face while I'm still being nice and letting you keep hell."

"Oh! Oh, so that's how it is?" Crowley snorted, smoothing the lapels of his best suit jacket indignantly. "You think just because you have a little dark power, the Mark of bloody Cain on your arm and the First bloody Blade under your jacket that you can waltz into Hell and control those nuts?" he scoffed. "You have no idea what Hell is, Squirrel. You have…oh, right…you have been there," he coughed as if realizing just how far in the gutter he was sinking as this situation went more out of the control he thought he had. "Moving on."

Dean merely shifted a dark look, his eyes still their normal green since he'd learned to control the switch to black depending on his moods and temper. "I know all about the pits of Hell, Crowley. I was on that rack for 30 years and for 10 I learned all that I needed to at Alastair's hand so don't think for one damn second that if I wanted to I couldn't make your life even more miserable than I am now and…_sonuvabitch_."

Crowley lifted an eyebrow at the familiar ringtone to see Dean pick up his phone and just stare at it. "Have you talked to Moose recently?" he asked, knowing the man hadn't. "Stubborn boy, isn't he?"

"He's a Winchester and he got his stubbornness from both of our parents," Dean muttered, debating ignoring the call like he had been for weeks but tonight he gave in and hit the talk button. "Hey."

"Don't you even goddamn dare act all casual and friendly with me, Dean Winchester! Not now! Not after the last three days of hell I've been through trying to keep _your_ little brother, if you still think of Sam as that given what I've managed to make sense of his mumblings, from the horde of never ending black eyed demons that seem determined to kill him or kidnap him or torture him! I don't think any of them have made up their minds yet! If demons have minds! I don't really know since this is out of my pay grade, hotshot!"

Dean had been expecting to hear his brother's voice. To get his ear shouted off by a pissed off Jody Mills surprised him. Then her words began to sink in and he could feel new power bubbling to the surface while narrowing his gaze at Crowley. "Evening, Sheriff," he greeted smoothly. "Why are you calling me on Sam's phone."

"Did the part of that rant about demons, black eyed sons of bitches, torturing and trying to kill your brother or kidnap him until he managed to escape, call me for help since it seems he's no longer part of a duo, escape whatever the hell is screwing up your brains, Dean?" Jody's temper was frayed and it showed.

She'd come to accept the things that Bobby and the boys hunted were real. Hell, she seen her town overrun by zombies, she'd seen her dead son come back to life and literally kill and try to eat his father, she'd dealt with a pissed off Goddess killing people and even vampires hadn't phased her too badly.

When Sam had called her making little to no sense she hadn't considered asking too many questions. She'd floored her truck from Sioux Falls, South Dakota to Blue Earth, Minnesota in record time to find a situation that was far beyond her ability to handle.

In between fevered convulsions brought on from pain, infection and whatever else might have happened to the younger of Winchester brothers she'd gotten a sketchy story of a biblical mark, a bone blade, Dean going dark side even before a power hungry angel stabbed and killed him and now he was avoiding Sam while maybe hanging out with the very damn demon that had almost killed her to get to the boys.

Jody had been doing what she could to protect Sam but it was getting harder so finally she'd grabbed his phone and just kept hitting the speed dial button for his brother; getting angrier each time it was ignored or went to voicemail.

The moment the call was actually picked up this time she didn't waste any time letting the man on the other end know exactly what she thought of him and his choice to walk out on the kid that she knew had been looking up to him for even longer than the time that she'd known them.

"No, I heard you. I was just trying to decide why a horde of demons would have targeted Sam much less attacked him," Dean narrowed his gaze the second he caught the sudden wince on the King of Hell's face, fisting the hand not holding the phone and immediately locking the demon in place in case he had plans to vanish. "Put him on so he can tell me what's been going on…if he'll talk to me."

"Dean, did whatever happened to you cause you to go deaf?" Jody paced the front of Church that Sam had chosen to hide in and refused to be budged from, trying to keep her eye on where he was laying in front of the raised alter so he was close to the never ending supply of Holy Water the place seemed to have and the barred front doors. "Sam is beyond hurt. He's burning with fever from some infected wounds. They must have had him for a few days before he managed by the Grace of God…did that make you cringe? Anyway, he escaped to come to this church in Minnesota where he called me. He's alternating between coughing up a lung, convulsing and screaming in pain and fighting not to cry for you.

"Your brother is hurt, scared, confused, fevered and we're being bombarded by a bunch of demons looking to skin this kid over something you're doing," Jody went on, slipping into her best pissed off mother tone. "I don't know what's going on or how much of what Sam said is true given he was out of it when I got here but I know that the one thing Bobby always said was that I never had to worry because you would always have Sam's back because he was your little brother.

"Now tell me that Bobby was wrong. Tell me that something's happened to change you. Tell me that you don't care for this young man who woke up one time the other day and asked me where his Dean was. You tell me that and I'll hang up and hold the fort so to speak for as long as I can because I promised that damn old drunk to look after his boys," her voice softened and for a long moment there was silence before Jody spoke again. "He also said if I ever spoke to you to tell you that it was okay if you took the Army man out of the ashtray. He said he knows you probably don't feel that way anymore and he won't see you or the car again. Does that make sense because he lost me the moment he tried not to cry while he said it."

Dean's eyes closed, anger simmering but not at his brother or his fevered words. He should've known that by taking off, by refusing Sam's calls that his brother would think those things but he hadn't thought it possible to feel the type of pain that squeezed his heart when he shot a look into the back seat to see the battered old green plastic military toy that was as big a part of the Impala as the initials scrawled into the leather or the rattling Legos in the heater.

"He…he said demons went after him for something I was doing?" he asked tightly.

"Bollocks," Crowley muttered and had only a small chance to growl an obscenity before he was physically picked up and slammed against the hard brick wall again with a fully enraged Dean Winchester, green eyes flickering between dark green and black glaring at him. "Now settle down…ugh!"

"You sent demons after Sam?" Dean snarled, ignoring the woman on his phone as he fought the desire to pull the damn First Blade and end his problem with Crowley right then. "You sent your goddamn demons after my brother? That was your plan, Crowley?" he demanded. "You thought nailing Sam, torturing him, kidnapping him to use as a pawn to control me would actually get you anything but this goddamn blade in your chest? You…"

"No!" the demon yelled, realizing that the more emotion Dean exuded the more power he had and that was not a comforting thing for the King of Hell right then. "Do I look suicidal to you? Me send my boys after Moose? Dean, even considering what you're doing now, I know that somewhere in that over macho, angry body is still the same over protective angry Squirrel that sold his soul for his brother. Those aren't my demons after Sam. There are still other factions and _that's _one of the reasons I'm trying to get you to see reason and work with me to…"

"Screw you and your factions!" Dean yelled, whirling to stalk back to the Impala. He jerked open the door while letting Crowley fall to the ground with a thud. "It was your damn civil war that caused me to have this damn mark on my arm, that's caused this to happen to me and now it's causing my brother to be hurt by demons! I sold my soul to keep Sam safe from black eyes sons of bitches. I might be or I might be becoming what I was raised to hate but I am still his brother and so long as I have breath left or power I will be damned if Sam will be hurt by this!"

Crowley opened his mouth to object but could only cough as the Impala's tires kicked up dirt and dust when it peeled out of the alley with an angry roar in the engine as if the car could sense her owner's fury. "Well, that went bloody nice," he muttered, snapping his fingers to take him back to Hell where he decided a new plan was in order.

Dean didn't realize he still had his phone clenched in his hand for several minutes until he looked down and saw it. "You still there?" he asked, voice deep and much more gruff than even his normal pissed off toned used to get. "Jody?"

"Yeah, I'm just waiting for you to stop snarling and come back to the phone," Jody had listened to the conversation and had to pause to consider what she heard to compare it to what Sam had tried to say in his brief moments of lucidity. "Guess I probably shouldn't toss Holy Water in your face the next time I see you?"

"It…it seems to depend on how pure it is," Dean didn't want to scare the Sheriff of Sioux Falls but he also guessed she should be aware of some things. "Can you tell me how long you've been with him?"

"I got here almost a week ago but from the infection in a few of these wounds and how bad he looks they must have nailed him a good week or so before that," Jody moved to kneel down next to where Sam laid, catching his hand as he began to twist in feverish dreams again. "He holed himself up in some church in Minnesota and was able to tell me what to do to at least slow the bastards down but they keep coming, he's getting worse and it's just me here, Dean," she sighed, sounding tired. "I fell asleep once and woke up to a mess. If you…I don't know what to do for him or to stop them."

"Where in Minnesota are you?" Dean couldn't figure out why the hell Sam would seek refuge in a church, much less one in Minnesota unless… "Jody, are you in Blue Earth?" he asked tightly, pushing the gas pedal down more to get as much speed as he could.

There was a moment of silence and Dean thought he could hear the woman talking quietly to someone when he realized she was trying to soothe Sam who must have woken up fevered and confused when another sound was heard and he gritted his teeth.

"Where? Yeah, that's what he called the place but it looks abandoned," Jody remarked when she came back to the phone. "The only good thing is it seems to have an endless supply of this water that burns the crap out of these things. Do you…"

"Can you move him?" Dean asked but then winced even as he knew the woman was probably glaring at the phone. "Alright, stupid question. Sam's dead weight when he's hurt like this so no, you couldn't move him. If he wakes up some and can help you get him up, head to the basement. There should be…there used to be a room there a lot like Bobby had that'll keep you guys safe until…Jody?" he heard what sounded like a crash. "What the hell was that? Jody!"

"Damn, they're back and hitting the doors hard," Jody's normally steady voice shook as she worked to make sure all the signs and marks were still in place around Sam just in case any of the demons got inside the church like they had a few times already. "Y'know, there are days like this that I really wish I'd never met you boys."

"Jody…go to the basement and lock yourself in that room I told you about," Dean heard the sharp inhale and plunged on before the woman ripped him apart. "You can't protect Sam from them if they're this determined. One time they will get past the wards you put up or the ones that are still probably there from Pastor Jim. They will not hesitate to rip you to shreds to get to him. This isn't your…"

"If you finish that sentence by saying this isn't my fight I swear that the first time you show your goddamn face in my town again or I ever hunt your unfeeling ass down for hurting Sam this way that before I find some way to hurt you that I will kick your ass like Bobby would have," Jody snapped, fury outweighing her worry for herself right then. "Is this my fight? No, not really since Sam has a big brother that is supposed to be protecting his back and making sure crap like this doesn't happen. But since _you_ apparently have more important things to do now or whatever the hell happened to make you not care about this boy and Singer isn't around anymore it looks like it's up to _me_ to watch over and protect Sam as best as I can. I'm sorry I called and…oh shit. There goes a window. Gotta go, Dean. Demon horde's back."

Over the phone before it went dead Dean heard the glass break and what sounded like multiple voices to Jody but to him he could hear the demons inside the people and knew the woman was outnumbered. "Damn it!" he slammed the palm of his hand against the steering wheel.

He was in Illinois. Even at the Impala's top speed it would take him too long to get there in time to be of any help. Dean glanced at the phone he'd dropped on the seat. He knew there was still a number in it that he could call but he doubted if it would be picked up.

A piece of the former hunter had thought with this change that he'd lose those inner feelings that he'd had from the moment his little brother was born. Dean had made Sam his number one priority ever since they'd been kids. He'd looked out for him, raised him basically and had made plenty of rash decisions just to keep Sam safe despite the life of insanity they'd been dragged into.

When he first woke up to realize just what the Mark of Cain and the First Blade had helped to turn him into and he made the choice to leave so Sam wouldn't be pulled down or possibly hurt by this latest turn of events, Dean had thought he would stop caring. He'd thought the need to protect, the burning fury that made him want to unleash these new powers on anyone who touched or hurt his baby brother would go away or at least dim.

Dean was now realizing that while some of his feelings had changed, while he wasn't the same as he'd been even after his 40 years in Hell or the time in purgatory he did still feel the same toward Sam. He realized as he began to plot, to allow his rage to build as he replayed Jody's words about Sam's injuries, about the demons who thought they could target his brother and Sam's own fevered words for him that he probably always would feel that need to protect; as well as the much larger need to burn the goddamn black-eyed sons of bitches who hurt his little brother.

"The hell they will," he growled, debating briefly before making a choice that like so many others he'd made since waking up to discover just what he was and also how different he was compared to other demons, Dean settled himself with the choice and would live with it. His main focus was getting to Blue Earth in time to prove the same point that he'd been proving since the first day he'd taken down a bully picking on Sam in a playground. "No one touches my little brother and lives to brag about it."

**Right then: Blue Earth, Minnesota:**

Dropping the phone, Jody reached for her weapon as well as the other piece in her arsenal that she knew she'd never be admitting to using.

"Man, you guys don't know when to quit, do ya?" she was glad that so far the demons seemed to only be able to break in from the front of the Church. "Back off!"

The powerful water soaker watergun had been supposed to be a gift for a friend's son in a few weeks. Now Jody was glad she'd had it with her because it sure was coming in handy as she gave a burst toward the four black eyed men…demons who'd come in from the broken window.

"The hunter's gonna bleed before we skin him, bitch," the demon who seemed to be in charge of this barrage stayed back while his pals hissed and spit at being hit by the spray of Holy water. "He's going to be a message to his big brother. Winchester might be all powerful right now and he might have the so-called King cowed but not all of Hell will bow to him. He's a freak with a mark and some fancy blade but all of Hell knows his weakness and that's little Sammy there. Give him to us and maybe we'll kill you quickly."

Jody briefly thought back to a time when she'd just believed all of this supernatural stuff had been an old drunk's stories. She longed for that naivety as she pumped the water gun again to give a determined spray that chased the others away and glared at their boss.

"You want Sam? Go through me and the Holy Water gun I got primed and ready for you, jackass," she invited, hoping she came across as braver than her pounding heart told her she was.

"You can't keep this up, lady," the demon told her but backed away even though he knew at any time his numbers could take the human's protector even with the wards, sigils and Holy Water. "One of these times I'll quit playing. Winchester's ours."

Jody stayed beside the bruised and battered limp form of Sam Winchester until she was certain the damn demons as backed off for the moment. She knew the window was too big for her to block even if she could kick apart a few of the pews in the church.

"…J…Jody?"

"You back with me in the here and now, Sam?" she glanced down to see wide, glassy with shock and pain hazel eyes struggling to open.

From the moment she got here to lay eyes on Sam Winchester, the Sheriff of Sioux Falls knew he was hurt. She'd seen Sam hurt since she'd seen him after those damn vampires had tried to bleed him and she'd seem him after that one thing had tried to kill him. But to see the torn bloody wounds, the bruises, the burns and shattered look in those damn deep eyesJody knew he was in worse shape than he was trying to let her know about.

"Just stay still. It looks like you're bleeding again," she wet a rag in the fount of water that Sam had brokenly told her had been blessed sometime so it was pure Holy Water to wipe it over his sweaty face, feeling that his fever had spiked again and could tell one of the open wounds must have opened more in all his jerking in his sleep. "Sam, let me try to stitch the worst ones? The blood loss is going to kill you before the infection does or…they do."

Sam wasn't sure how long his thoughts would stay clear so he knew he had to make this time count. He recalled the past few months after learning about what happened to his brother, he recalled the fight he and Dean had about Dean's decision to go into the world to play demon and Sam's insistence to get his brother back any cost.

He could also recall the unexpected attack one night as he'd been returning to a motel on the outskirts of St. Paul. Sam knew he'd been going for too long without sleep and that error in judgment had allowed an innocent face with a sob story to distract him. By the time he realized he'd walked into a trap he had no chance to pull the demon blade or fight back when he was jumped.

Sam did try to forget the next few days as they were mostly agony. At first he'd thought they were Crowley's goons looking to use him as leverage to make Dean do something. It quickly became clear to him that these demons weren't from Crowley but were looking to make a point to his brother despite Sam telling them that Dean wasn't the same brother who'd drop everything to come help him now.

It also became clear to the hunter that these demons were bloody thirsty sadists who enjoyed making him scream. Sam knew he would probably die this time since he had no one to come looking for him when one day one of them got sloppy and thought he was unconscious.

They'd strapped him to a table but had stopped checking the worn leather after each time they'd cut or burn or inflict other cruel injuries so after one time Sam began to work one loose. He cut his wrist worse than they had but he managed to free one wrist to grab the blade, free his other and kill his lone guard.

Injured, in shock and pain left Sam unsure where to go when a memory of a lifetime ago flashed in his mind and he knew if he could get to Blue Earth, to the old church that James Murphy preached at and died in, that he might stand a chance.

He still wasn't sure how he'd gotten to the church in one piece without wrecking or bleeding out but he had. Sam knew he'd collapsed as soon as he got inside. He'd used his own blood to make a few hasty sigils that he hoped would buy him time as he called the last person he knew who might be able to help him. Now as he heard the sounds form outside in this rare moment of clarity Sam regretted getting Jody Mills involved. He regretted that it wouldn't just be him dying.

"…Go," he managed to get out as pain bloomed in his back where he knew there were raw and open burns and gashes from a razor strap. "It's…it's me they want. Let…let 'em in and hide…til…til…"

"Hide until they take you or kill you?" Jody's eyes narrowed, wiping his face with the water. "I'll tell you the same thing I just told that jackass of a brother you have or had or whatever we'll defining it as…I might die but I'll keep you safe as long as I can," she smoothed his hair back out of tired, glassy eyes to offer him as calm a smile as she could. "I promised Bobby that I'd look out for you two. I might not be able to look out for Dean anymore but you called me so you're stuck with me."

Sam groaned as pain hit in his arm when he went to reach for the woman's hand, recalling feeling something crack and guessed his arm was broke in multiple places if he went by the pain he was in. He tried to shake his head when he stopped. "You…you talked to…De'n?" he wasn't sure what that meant, if anything.

Sam accepted that he'd spent nearly 10 years trying to get his older brother to accept that he wasn't the same kid he had been that last night in Stanford. He realized he and Dean had been battling wits and stubborn streaks for the last couple of years about Sam's ability to fend for himself but as he laid on the floor behind the pulpit that he could still remember watching Pastor Jim practice his sermons at, he suddenly wished he could hear that deep gruff, pissed off big brother tone one more time.

"I yelled mostly but I think he got my point," Jody shrugged, hearing something that made her pause to try to get Sam shielded as best as she could by one of the pews she'd dragged up to act as a barrier. "It's going to be fine, Sam. Dean will come."

"Dean's…not…Dean right now, Jody," Sam gritted, trying to clear his suddenly glassy vision and not sure if it was his injuries or tears clouding them as he struggled to move a hand to motion to the duffel bag he barely remembered dragging in with him. "He…doesn't…" he stopped, unable to say that his brother didn't care any longer. "Go…" he whispered, pain increasing. "Give me…give me the blade and then…go hide…basement…"

Jody rolled her eyes. "Your hurt, he's messed up and you both still try to get me to go hide in some church basement," she could had cheerfully throttled both Winchesters if she suddenly wasn't preoccupied with grabbing her water gun just as something was heard breaking to the side and it seemed like a horde of people, men and women, were suddenly swarming into the run down church. "Shit! Sam?"

Sam heard the glass break, heard the shouts of people but as he tried to push himself up to at least help he screamed as pain went through his body when something went through his thigh. "Jody! Run!"

"I'm not…crap!" Jody swore when the Holy Water affected the first wave but not so much the others. She'd just started to whirl to see what hit the hunter when suddenly a wave of energy swept through the chapel to throw her across it. "Sam!"

"Time's up, lady," the demon leader smirked as he stepped in, walking down between the pews to sneer toward where the Sheriff had been tossed. "You should've run when you had the chance. Now you get to watch as my pals here string the former Boy King up on that cross and skin him slowly to send a message to his freak of a brother," he snapped his fingers, pointed at a bleeding and barely conscious again Sam and then to the cross that still hung on a wall. "Crucify him!"

**TBC**


	2. Chapter 2

**Still His Brother**

**Warning:**_ Some violence in this chapter. Also keep in mind that Dean's reactions now, how he looks at certain things will be different & he doesn't hold back some opinions that he has been._

**Chapter Two**

Jody had been stunned by hitting the far wall and then dropping to the hardwood floor. Shaking her head, she heard the damn mocking voice threatening to crucify Sam and felt her stomach drop to her boots. "No!" she shouted, trying to get up and reach some type of weapon only to be shoved back against the wall by an invisible power and held there as several black eyed men began to wrestle the weakly struggling hunter up from the floor.

The salt barrier she'd put down had been broken and she cursed violently. "Don't you touch him!" she yelled, wondering why the cavalry never seemed to show up in real life. "Sam!"

"I watched what his brother did to others in Hell. I always wanted to try a few of the tricks the legendary Dean Winchester did to souls in the Pit," the demon laughed as his power easily held the human still. He walked over to where it still took four of his best to control Sam's weak struggles. "Big brother won't be charging in to save you this time," he grabbed a handful of hair to jerk Sam's head back to slap him with a vicious backhand to the face before forcing a leather strap in his mouth.

"I want you to scream but we don't want to risk any nasty exorcisms," he gave another hard slap before smiling cruelly. "I might've gone easy on you if you hadn't escaped and made us chase you, hunter. Now I'm going to enjoy keeping you alive while I give you an up close and personal look at some of the things your hero did to others while he was Alastair's pet project. String him up!"

Sam's body was in agony and as the demons started to drag him to the cross he tried to fight but was unable to. He could hear Jody screaming for them to stop, to let him go but he knew that wasn't a possibility. Sam just wished he could help her.

He screamed as his back was slammed into the cross after it was pulled off the wall where it had hung ever since the church had been built.

Power held him in place as his broken arm was wrenched out straight to be held against the heavy polished wood and Sam struggled to not look away as the head demon held out a large rusty spike while hefting a hammer.

A piece of him wanted the bliss of unconsciousness so he wouldn't be awake to watch the spike be driven into his palm like he knew it was about to be but the side of him that had grown up with an ex-Marine for a father and an older brother who never flinched at anything had been taught better so despite the pain he was in, the shock and nausea rolling through his head and stomach Sam forced his eyes to stay as open as the swelling around one would allow to watch.

The sickening sound of metal striking flesh had Jody's stomach flipping as she looked away at the painful scream while demons laughed. "Bastards!" she screamed, more enraged at the callous torture Sam was enduring than the danger to herself. "Stop hurting him!"

"Oh, we haven't even begun to hurt him yet," the demon sneered, reaching for another spike as another demon yanked Sam's head back from where it had fallen to his heaving chest. "By the time I'm done, he'll be begging to die. It's just a shame that big brother isn't here to see us crucify you, boy. Maybe we should call him so he can hear you scream or…what the hell?"

He'd been about to drive the other spike into soft flesh when suddenly it seemed like a strong surge of power blew through the old church just as the heavy double doors that had still been barred blew open with a resounding slam that echoed through the old building while also causing a ripple of pain to shoot through the demons closest to the door.

Jody had been struggling against the power that still held her when it suddenly vanished and she dropped with a curse. She was about to try her luck against the demons who were determined to crucify Sam when she heard a deep, husky and totally pissed off voice speak and wasn't sure to be relieved or more worried.

"Hey! I think you assholes have something that still belongs to me."

Dean Winchester was beyond pissed off and it showed in not only the cold steel in his deep voice but also in the way his intense green eyes flashed to pure black the moment he stepped foot into the old church and saw the demons with his brother half nailed to a cross.

It hadn't taken half the amount of energy that he thought it would to teleport not only himself but also the Impala from where he was in Illinois to Blue Earth, Minnesota. The moment he'd stepped out of the car and heard the muffled agonized scream that tore through whatever good was still in his twisting soul the former hunter was glad to have power to spare because he planned to now do serious damages to the bastards inside.

Stepping into the church that still had memories from his youth, Dean's gaze flicked to Jody before shooting to the demon with the hammer and spike in his hand. "Two choices," he began slowly, voice pure hard steel as his one hand reached for the blade under his jacket while his other shot out to send four people who'd lunged toward him sailing across the main church floor without pausing a step.

"You can get your goddamn hands off of my brother and leave here with your possessed asses intact to take a message back to whoever the hell was stupid enough to send you after him to start with or…" Dean's eyes flashed to pure black while his lips curved into a slow cold smile as he grabbed one man by the throat to stab the bone blade that had once belonged to Cain through his chest. "…or I kill every single one of you for putting your hands on Sam," he dropped the corpse with a shrug. "Your choice."

The demon's leader felt the power and could also see his followers wavering as it was very easy to see that this man, this former hunter, had more power than they'd been led to believe. "Kill as many of them as you can, Winchester," he invited with a cold sneer, dropping both hammer and spike to reach back to grab Sam's throat while his minions took his bravado as a cue to all rush Dean. "I can still kill your brother before you could…ugh!"

"No, not with that demon killing blade stuck in your chest you can't," Dean didn't watch the demon fall after he used the power he now had to find and throw the blade to end the bragging demon's boasts. He heard a muffled cry of pain as Sam's body sagged without anyone holding him, the spike in his one hand the only thing keeping the hunter from collapsing to the ground. "Jody! Get to Sam!" he snapped, seeing the Sheriff had a clue path since the demons were either rushing him or running for escape…of which there was none. "Try to support him to keep the weight off that hand until I get to you!"

It had briefly stunned the woman when she'd seen the obvious change in Dean, when she'd watched him calmly kill the first demon as well as when the other one fell at what could only have been caused by a power she was just starting to realize he now had.

Jody knew she should feel afraid, to see whatever this was now in place of the hunter she'd known for the last five years but instead she pushed all of that aside to grab her dropped weapons and bolt the distance in order to get to a barely conscious Sam. "Don't take all day showing off!" she yelled back to him as she struggled to get an arm around Sam's waist to try to keep the pressure off of his pinned hand. "I think they're already impressed by the new tricks. I'll be impressed when you get your ass up here to help your brother!"

"Coming…mother," Dean smirked, the First Blade held in one hand while with a thought the demon killing blade they'd kept from Ruby landed in his other. He calmly looked at the demons still surrounding him to motion with the First Blade. "Bring it."

The fight was seriously one-sided. There were still close to a dozen, maybe more, demons that hadn't run or tried to as those who had attempted to flee were killed by a burst of power that didn't even slow Dean down as he met each attack with an eerie, almost calm, and effortless skill that soon left the floor of the church littered with burned out dead bodies.

When the last one fell he stood still to stare at the carnage before slowly taking a shaky breath to push the power back down, to make his eyes return to normal before he forgot about the dead demons as a sharp voice snapped his name in a tone that only Jody Mills could still use on him and he broke into a run. "Sam!"

"Well at least you still remember his name," Jody muttered, voice strained from trying to hold up nearly 200 pounds of dead weight of a badly injured Sam. "I'm so glad to see you could stop whatever you were doing to come play hero. Now do you want to get that goddamn spike out of your brother's hand or should I do that while still trying to hold him up?"

Even before he got to be like this, the Sheriff from Sioux Falls was about the only person left in his and Sam's lives that Dean would take that tone or attitude from without reacting without either snark or a fist. He thought this time would be different but as he hurried up to where she was trying to support Sam, he just shot her his usual look when humoring her 'Mom' tone and sarcasm. Then his full focus went to his brother.

"Sam," he murmured, gut clenching as he took in the actual damage that had been inflicted on his brother and wished he'd taken more time to make the demons suffer like he was almost certain Sam had suffered. "Sammy."

A soft whimper was heard as Sam's body shook from shock and pain. He jerked when his barely conscious body felt hands too big to be Jody's reach out to touch his face and tried to move but was trapped in agony with every move until a sharp voice was heard close to him; a voice that Sam knew he could never forget no matter what.

"Settle down and don't try to move. Let me get you free." Dean ordered swiftly after seeing that giving a harder snap to his brother's name seemed to settle his attempts to jerk free. He was surprised to see that his hands were shaking now when they hadn't before as he slid one arm carefully around his hurt brother to take the weight off of Jody and not missing the spots of blood soaking through Sam's shirt or how hot his body felt even through Dean's jacket sleeve. "Go out to the car, get in the trunk and grab a couple blankets, and the First Aid kit," he tossed this order to Jody while he eyed the spike that was pinning Sam's hand to the cross.

"Can you…" Jody paused to see him look at her and she nodded. "They gone?" she asked, deciding to take her water gun with her to be safe.

"Yeah, they're gone," Dean grunted, waiting for the woman to argue about leaving him alone with Sam but just felt her hand lightly touch his arm as she went to do what he told her to.

Dean knew he could have waited to send Jody to the car but he really didn't want her to watch as he pulled the bloody spike from where it was embedded in his little brother's hand. With his newfound strength he easily held Sam's weight while gently lifting his face with his hand to see bruised, bloody and swollen features along with one glassy eye that was fluttering as if trying to open.

"Hey, little brother," Dean was surprised to feel such weight in his chest as he looked at Sam now, knowing if he'd just have taken any of his brother's phone calls or if he hadn't left him like he had that this might not have happened. "Sammy, if you can hear me I need you to listen to me," he wasn't sure how far into his subconscious the pain might have driven his brother but he hoped he could hear him a little to understand this next part. "I know when you start to wake up that you're going to be scared and that you probably won't believe I'm real but right now I need to pull this out of your hand so I can get you off of this cross and down to the basement to see how bad they hurt you. This will hurt."

Jody had hurried out to the Impala, refusing to even wonder how the hell Dean had gotten here as quickly as he had. She'd only seen the inside of the trunk once and had been too busy not pointing out how illegal it was to have half of the stuff she'd seen. As she popped it now to grab what she was told to bring she jerked her head up at the cut off scream and knew now why Dean had wanted her out of the church.

By the time she collected the blankets, found the First Aid kit buried behind boxes of ammo and a few other things she thought might come in handy to hurry back inside Jody paused to take in the scene in front of her.

Dean had gotten the spike out of Sam's hand which allowed him to lower the younger man to the floor well away from the cross and had removed the leather gag. Now he was sitting with his back to it with Sam held loosely in his arms while applying pressure to his bleeding hand and appeared to be talking softly to him even though Sam was clearly, mercifully, unconscious.

"You're going to be fine, Sam. It's all going to be fine," he was saying, knowing his brother had passed out fully after the painful scream when the damn spike had come free and was just talking to let him hear his voice and also to stop the anger that had built again at the knowledge that demons had gone after his brother. "I guess I've been making too many waves with the demon factions and they thought it wise to target you. It looks like I need to make a stronger impression that touching you will mean certain death and…really? Dousing me with Holy water from a squirt gun?"

Dean had felt Jody's return and had been lifting his head when he had a face full of Holy water hit him and he coughed more from it nearly choking him than any real pain. "Seriously, Sheriff?"

"Just had the urge come over me," she shrugged, frowning when she saw a flash of deeper green but noticing that his eyes didn't go fully black like the others had. "Why aren't you steaming or stuff like those other…they did?" she asked, dropping the stuff to unfold a blanket to get it wrapped around a badly in shock Sam.

"I'm not possessed, Jody," Dean replied, adjusting his arms so she could wrap the heavy blanket around his brother.

"Black eyes and powers, Dean," Jody countered, kneeling down beside the brothers to carefully feel Sam's pulse and not liking how shallow and erratic it was. "Sam said you got a mark on your arm, a blade made from a bone that started making you change when a crazy angel stabbed you, killed you and here you are. Now you tell me what you are and whether or not I should be scared for him."

Dean glanced down at his brother's face to sigh. He knew she probably should be. When he first woke up he'd been scared for his brother which had been one of the main reasons he'd taken off on his own to begin with. Now he realized that while his temper was more intense, his reactions and moods darker there was one thing at least that hadn't changed and that was the way he felt for his brother.

"No," he looked up at her fully. "You don't have to be scared for him while he's with me. Despite what I thought at first, despite maybe even what Crowley thought would happen I'm still Sam's brother and that, the need to protect him, doesn't look to be leaving me anytime soon. Now as for the rest? I can let you call the King of Hell so he can try to explain what the hell might have happened to me."

"Oh, hell no," Jody refused that plan while watching Dean begin to move as if to stand up but noticed that he didn't seem to be having any trouble bearing Sam's weight as he kept his brother in his arms. "If I got that little toad on the phone I'd let him have an earful for nearly killing me and then I'd let him have it for whatever his part was in whatever happened to you," she grabbed the extra blankets and First-Aid kit to frown. "He needs a hospital, Dean."

"There isn't one close enough to help him and I don't think he's strong enough to survive a teleport since mine are still too rough," Dean knew what his brother needed. He just wasn't sure how to get it for him.

Right then he just wanted him safe and that meant one of the rooms in the basement. "Take Sam's phone and start hitting redial on the first number that isn't mine since the last time I checked that thing he had every one of my phones stored in it. We need the guy on the next number and I know he won't pick up if I call," Dean replied while heading for the church basement. "If he answers, tell him who you are and what happened to Sam. Tell him Sammy's hurt and needs more than I can do even like this."

Dean hadn't seen or spoken with Castiel since waking up a very unusual demon but he knew the Angel probably wouldn't talk to him right then anyway. He was just hoping with his waning Grace that he could still help Sam.

As he got to the door that led downstairs, he paused. "Oh, and Jody?" he glanced back at her, eyes going hard as he added. "If he gives you come excuse or says something stupid like he's too busy or Heaven needs him? Tell him that if he doesn't come for my brother that I will hunt his feathered ass down to the ends of the earth and rip those goddamn wings right out of his back. Then bring this stuff down. The demons won't be back and by the time they get brave enough to try we'll be gone or I'll have made it where they can't get close."

"Yeah, but he hadn't gotten more intense or anything," Jody sighed and reached for the phone to begin to scroll through the numbers to find the one she thought Dean probably meant.

The church basement looked normal unless one knew where the hidden doors to the two rooms that James Murphy had added were and luckily for them Dean still knew where they were. He was just glad and relieved that after Meg had murdered the pastor turned hunter that no one else had taken over this parish.

The one room used to and probably did still hold weapons, books, and other hunter related items. The other lesser used room had a bed, some supplies that used to include bottled water, dried food and items that he hoped could help Sam.

"Hey, shh, shh, simmer down there, Sasquatch," Dean was quick to soothe when Sam moaned in pain as he carefully eased him down onto the bed. "You need to stay still while I check these wounds out and not lecture you on not letting the good Sheriff at least attempt to stitch a few of these up."

Dean sat still on the edge of the bed for a long time to just gaze at his brother before slowly letting his fingers card back through damp, bloody tacky long dark hair to growl lowly at the wounds he could see better now and knew from long buried experience just what the demons had put Sam through.

Filling a clean basin with warm water from the tap that would bring clean well water to the room, Dean sat back to slowly remove Sam's tattered shirt and let out several harsh curses when he took in the burns, cuts, welts, bruises on top of the broken arm; the arm with the hand that was still bleeding from the palm.

Even a basic look told him most of the wounds were infected and he was glad the Impala still had some bottles of whiskey in the trunk or he might have to go see if Jim's old stash was still untouched. The broken arm worried Dean the most as he could tell just by looking that it had been broke in multiple places and needed more than just a simple splint and sling or else the arm would never heal correctly.

"Damn it," he muttered darkly, catching the left hand that swung wildly as Sam's reactions began to react to the feel of someone with him. "Sam, hey, calm down and stay still for me," he sighed even as he said it because he knew that even if his brother had been conscious and alert he would still probably swing on him right then.

The trick as Dean knew would be to keep Sam down long enough to clean the wounds as best as he can and without either of them getting hurt in the process. He knew he could use the power but as he figured the demons who had tortured his brother had probably held him like that he didn't want to use it and scare him more.

Dean could feel the fever raging on his brother's skin, soaking his hair as he began to twist restlessly, jerking and trying to fight against the hands that Sam could feel and thought were there to hurt him rather than help. "Sam, let me clean these so we can start fixing you up before Jody starts bitching at me again."

"N…no…don't touch," Sam's voice was soft, slurred from pain, shock and fear. He wasn't awake fully but his thoughts had cleared enough that he could feel hands on him, feel the burning pain all over his body, feel something touching his wounds and flashed to his last real memory and that was the black eyed demon impaling his hand onto the wooden cross. "No! No, let…go! Let…" he started thrashing more as his panic began to build. 

Sam had accepted that he was on his own. He hated what had happened to his brother, and had sworn to fix it but without Dean around fixing it would be useless. Even if he could complete the trials he needed Dean there with him to do that and his brother was gone. Dean had made it clear that he would take whatever he was and make it his own and by ignoring all of Sam's calls that told the younger Winchester just how broken he and his brother had finally become.

Sam had hoped before it all went wrong that if he could find a way, a spell, a deal to bring Dean back to life that they could start to finish healing the rifts between them. Even though the agony searing his body right then he could still see the last time Dean had spoken to him in that damn warehouse.

For Sam, the memory of his brother's last words would forever scar his soul because to hear Dean say that he was proud of them had meant so much and he had wanted so badly to fix this as Dean had fixed things for him so many times.

Then to remember the last words that Dean had said to him after they'd fought over Sam's vow to fix what the Mark of Cain had done to him made his heart hurt nearly as much as the burns, broken bones and open wounds from this attack did.

To hear every time he closed his eyes his brother's voice saying that the man he was had died, that the brother he'd been had died with Metatron's blade tore Sam's heart out and a piece of him blearily wondered if dying from infection or blood loss might not be better.

Sam thought that even as he felt strong hands that almost felt familiar to him trying to control his attempts to break free of the demons still torturing him but that would mean betraying everything that Dean had taught him. Sam had failed his brother too many times to let it happen again so he would fight, he would escape, he would find Dean and he would reverse this nightmares…even if it killed him.

"Damn it, Sam! How the hell can you be this unruly with a broken arm and more wounds than I care to count?" Dean was muttering, able to avoid the wild blows and weak kicks as his brother struggled blindly against images he thought were real. "I'm considering knocking your ass out again, little brother. You were easier to handle when you were five or 16 and drunk!"

"Let…go!" Sam fought harder when a hand clamped down on his arm to push him back down. "No! Kill me! I'll kill…you before you…touch me…not again. Not again you…De'n! De'n, don' go! Please…don' go like this! _Dean_!"

There hadn't been a lot in his life that had left Dean Winchester stunned to the point where he dropped his guard but the sudden switch in not only tone but words as Sam went from fighting against the demons who had hurt him clearly a lot more than either Dean or Jody had first suspected to begging him not to leave did just that.

Dean went still at the scream of his name that he could recall hearing from his brother only during Sam's worst nightmares and he realized his mistake as soon as he'd made it.

The second he relaxed his hold on Sam was when his injured brother managed to lash out with his left hand to hit him in the face with only a fraction of his normal strength but it was enough that the blow snapped a stunned Dean's head back and made him taste blood.

Now anytime when Dean was struck hard enough to draw blood it pissed him off. That was usually when the gloves came off and he stopped trying to use reason in a fight, even in a fight with his too often emotional younger brother.

Since waking up a demon with a soul his temper was more hair triggered than before and this time he had to fight to urge to lash out back at the fighting body in front of him. It took a lot of willpower that the former hunter was shocked he still had to stop his fist from curling and giving as good as he'd taken but instead as Sam's voice broke as it seemed his mind was flipping between the demons and probably the last time they'd seen one another he forced that burning temper down.

"Sam!" he put a snap to his tone, trying to get through the shock and fog in Sam's brain but when he dodged another punch this time when Sam went to try to roll off the bed, Dean moved. "Sammy!"

This time when he grabbed for his brother he closed any distance between them. Dean's one arm went flat to press it against Sam's chest to try to pin his shoulders to the bed while using his other hand to grab his jaw to hold his face still while snapping his brother's name; choosing to use the one name that only he had ever been allowed to use for Sam.

"Sammy, stop!" Dean swore as he felt his brother's struggles slowly become weaker, trying to remember that now he had more than his normal strength and not wanting to cause Sam any further injury trying to restrain him. "Sammy, please. Open your eyes. Look at me. You're safe. The demons are gone. Jody called me. I came. The demons are dead and you and Jody are safe," he paused to carefully shift his fingers back to card them through Sam's hair to push it out of eyes that one looked too swelled to even open a little.

Sam's chest was heaving from the exertion of trying to break free but between pain, lack of food or sleep, shock and blood loss he was too weak to keep it up. He slumped back to the bed, feeling the strength of the arm over his chest, in the hand that held his face before fingers slowly moved to push his hair back out of his face…like Dean used to do when he'd been younger or sick.

Gasping in pain, mind and body fighting the need to regain consciousness to face what else was in store for him slowly the voice he could hear speaking to him and thought he'd heard it before…after his hand had been impaled.

The voice was deep, husky with concern but slightly more gravelly than usual if Sam wanted to let himself believe the voice was real and not a part of his fevered and pain filled mind. Then he began to pay attention or try to in between the pain shooting through his body and head and Sam began to hear more than the mocking voices of the demons who'd tortured him he heard a voice saying a name that he never thought he'd hear again.

"Sammy, give me a sign that you can hear me, kiddo. Look at me or do something that doesn't involve trying to knock my head off when I'm trying to stop you from bleeding out of this hand and get these other wounds cleaned. Dude, I swear Sheriff Mills will bitch at both of us if you don't stop fighting me and let me clean some of these before she gets down here," Dean had given up reason now. He was just talking and saying whatever came to mind to try to get his voice to get through to his now still and unmoving brother. "Sammy. I know you hurt and maybe waking up is not a good plan given what I have to do to clean some of these but I need to know that you know it's me with you and not a dream or a nightmare.

"I…I know what I said when I left the bunker. I know I said the brother you knew was dead but…that isn't true," he slowly relaxed the arm that had pinned Sam's shoulders to the bed but left his other hand where it was on the side of his brother's neck to gently squeeze it; something that he hoped Sam might still respond to. "I…I thought it might be. I thought the longer this mark twists my soul into whatever it is that I might become a threat to you and I'd rather hurt you by saying those words to you than ever hurt you with that blade. Leaving was my way to look out for you but it doesn't seemed to have worked out too well."

Dean wasn't sure if his words were getting through to his brother or not but since Sam was no longer fighting and his chest seemed to be calming down he plunged ahead while silently wondering where the hell Jody Mills was during all this.

"Yeah, I've changed or maybe I haven't and I just stopped letting all of Dad's rules run me. The things I do, the things that I've been doing since leaving you are on me. I can't blame the mark, I can't blame the blade. I knew what I was doing when I did the stuff and while you might not approve of it all I haven't really gone all that far dark. I'm just using what I've got now to hunt in a different way," Dean watched for any signs of reaction in his brother while carefully using the hand not on Sam's neck to squeeze the cloth he'd tied around his brother's injured hand to help to stem the still trickling blood from the hole in his palm.

"Okay, when you wake up and after you feel better you can gripe that I'm doing the same thing you tried to do with the demon blood and I bitched at you. I know it but I'm not working with Crowley despite what he thought might actually happen. I'm no one's pawn. I know I'm not a normal demon despite the powers or extra strength. I have a soul that's slowly being twisted by this mark but I guess we could say right now I'm more in the gray area than light or black," he sighed, letting his fingers squeeze again and this time frowning as he thought he saw the slightly twitch of Sam's face.

"I'll tell you what else that I've just figured out I am," Dean took a slow breath and took a giant leap of faith with this one. "I figured out that I'm still your big brother, Sammy. And that it'll take more than black eyes, some powers and a worse temper to make me stop being your brother or to make me stop believing that despite all the crap in our lives that you will ever stop being…_my_ Sammy," he had to swallow the sudden lump in his throat at saying the words that he hadn't said out loud since his brother had been nine and scared of monsters.

"You were my Sammy when Mom first let me hold you, you were mine when I carried you out of that house, you were mine when I sold my soul to save your life and no matter what else happens from this moment on you will be my Sammy, my pain in the ass little brother until the day one of us actually manages to buy it for real and it sticks," Dean blinked a few times to clear his suddenly blurry vision when he felt weak fingers trying to close.

"… … De'n?"

"Hey, little brother," Dean heard his voice but knew this time the gruff low tone was more from buried emotion than anything else. "You with me enough to tell me you're gonna let me clean these wounds?"

Sam struggled to open one eye far enough to see if what he thought he was hearing was right or if the pain had finally driven him over the edge. He could feel the pain so he knew he was hurt and hurt bad but right then all he wanted was to focus on the voice, on the man, beside him.

When he first started hearing Dean he believed he was dreaming but the longer it went, the more actual emotion he heard, Sam started to reach for that voice as well as the hand he could feel.

He went to close his fingers around the ones he could feel holding is only to gasp as sharp stabbing pain went through his arm.

"No, don't try to move yet," Dean was quick to apply more pressure while also slipping his hand up to touch a fevered cheek wet with tears he knew Sam didn't realize where there. "You're hurt. Some of these I can deal with while others will take more than even I can do but you will be fine. I'm here now and I'll make this better."

Sam had finally gotten one eye open enough to stare up at his brother, feeling something untighten in his chest as he looked at Dean and only saw his brother and not what he'd become.

"You…real?" he asked in a voice stretched tight with pain, managing to get his left hand to work with him to reach up weakly to try to touch the side of Dean's face that still had a line of blood showing. "I…sorry?"

"Nah, my fault," Dean forced a smile because he could feel the pulse jumping in a way that told him he was losing time. "I know how cranky a patient you can be when hurt or sick…or drunk. It's all good, Sammy," he told him. "I'm sorry this happened."

"Still…still proud, De'n?" Sam thought it weird that things seemed so far away as he made a grab for Dean as if needing that connection.

"I will always be proud of you, of us and the things we've done and accomplished, Sam. None of this will ever change that," Dean assured him, settling his hand over the center of Sam's chest to focus and hoped these damn powers could actually do some good when the hair on the back of his neck began to stand up, telling him he wouldn't be alone much longer. "You can go to sleep. I'm going to clean and stitch some of these. Why didn't you let Jody?" he asked but knew the answer even before catching the weak bitch face.

"… she's…not you," Sam gasped when pain bloomed in his chest but then evened out, allowing him to breathe a little better. "Dying."

Dean frowned, refusing to let that word even enter into this. "You are not dying," he replied firmly. "I've gotten you through worse and I'll get you through this no matter who I have to threaten but you are not dying…unless it's…what you really want to do."

Saving Sam without taking into consideration what his little brother might have wanted was a huge part of how all of their recent issues had gone down. And while Dean's basic instinct still was to protect and save he also knew he had to let Sam make the choice.

"I…" Sam thought he was ready before but that was when he thought his brother was alright. Now he really didn't want to die. He wanted to fix Dean. So slowly he shook his head. "Wanna…help you," he groaned in pain, trying to move where his back was on fire. "You…really…came for…me?" he asked between clenched teeth.

"Yeah, Sammy, I really came for you," Dean hated that Sam had ever thought he wouldn't but accepted that he'd given him every reason to believe that. "Demon or not, I'm still your brother."

Sam wanted to say something but he was suddenly so tired and just wanted to sleep. "Tired," he mumbled, wondering if his voice sounded muffled or if it was just his ears. "De'n?"

Dean carefully will what power he had to heal what he could but had no idea if he could do what it would take to heal Sam enough so his brother could begin to heal on his own.

"Just close your eyes and go to sleep, Sammy. I'll be with you when you wake up," he promised, smoothing his fingers back through Sam's hair until he felt his brother's body go limp as pain and injuries took him back under.

Only once he was certain Sam was fully asleep did Dean allow his face to harden, his eyes stayed on Sam's pale face but he shifted one hand back slightly. He'd felt the change in energy and knew the Angel was close.

"Hey, Cas," he greeted tightly without looking over his shoulder. "I'm honestly shocked you even bothered to come."

"Sheriff Mills was very explicit when she quoted your words. Unlike others in the Garrison or those who have underestimated you I do not believe that you were…bluffing," Castiel stepped into the room slowly, allowing his waning grace to not only gauge the injuries he could feel from Sam but also the difference in his older brother.

While he and Dean hadn't seen one another since the last time in bunker the trench coat wearing angel had spoken with Sam on multiple occasions to know what had happened. He was just at a loss to what he was seeing now.

"My feelings for my brother haven't changed it seems," Dean let his fingers brush down Sam's broken arm with a light touch to feel where the bones were broke when he shot a hard glance over his shoulder. "Our friendship? Seriously changed."

The Angel supposed he should have seen that coming. He had done many things since meeting the Winchesters that had caused both hunters harm and while Dean, who he had saved from the Pit, had always been willing to give him leeway Castiel knew there had been things he hadn't been forgiven for and it was plain that this side of Dean Winchester was very good at letting all the buried anger at those betrayals come out.

"Gadreel and I were trapped. My plan to distract Metatron failed. I did not think he would…" Castiel sighed as Dean stood up. "I failed to...I'm…"

"No, not this time. I don't want the excuses, I don't want the lies or even to hear how you did your best to help us because I honestly don't give a damn," the former hunter began, voice hard as he faced the Angel that had brought him out of the Pit but who had also been responsible for not only Sam's sanity nearly being destroyed but also letting loose the goddamn Leviathans who ended up killing Bobby Singer.

"I ignored everything else you've done. I ignored when you let Sam out of the Panic Room to go with Ruby cause you were the only one who could've done that. I ignored when you brought Sam out of the Cage…without his soul. I ignored that it was you that knocked the wall down in Sam's mind that was shielding him from those memories. I ignored when you sided with Crowley to get to Purgatory. I have ignored that you opened Purgatory and stuck us with Dick Roman and the black gooey monsters that came with him.

"Dude, I have ignored or made excuses for you for crap that would've gotten anyone else killed! I did it because I honestly believed you wanted to help us and because I owed you for getting me out of Hell. I'll even give you and that asshole that killed Kevin credit for both being played by Metatron but what I won't give you is the fact that odds are high that you probably knew Sam had been nailed and did _nothing_ to help him!" Dean glared at Angel, no longer making excuses or caring about the bigger picture. "The mark had already started twisting me so that is on me for listening to Crowley and letting my anger rule over my common sense. I don't know what I am really…"

Castiel cocked his head to look at him. "When I look at demons I can see their true face and not that of their vessel. When I look at you…I still see you. The only change is your aura is…slightly darker than it normally is," he honestly found this transformation interesting as a human had never become a demon while still retaining their soul. "The mark on your arm in combination with the First Blade is twisting your soul but…you're still in control. You have power to rival Crowley but your choices are…"

"Mine," Dean finished, moving his hand to touch Sam when he heard his brother moan in his sleep. "Between Hell, Purgatory and now Cain's mark and the blade…this is what you get," he held out a hand to motion to himself while meeting the Angel's stunned look with a smirk. "A demon with a soul that still knows right from wrong but doesn't give a damn unless it suits me. I give a damn about Sam. I am still his brother. He is still the only thing I care about. Now, you want to make it up to me about all the times you've screwed us? Heal him."

Castiel would neither confirm nor deny if he knew that Sam was in danger. He took a longer look at the younger Winchester to gauge his injuries, feeling both the internal damage as well as the physical wounds.

"Sam's bleeding internally," he began grimly, tone going to the deep emotionless one it tended to when he was leading up to something he knew wouldn't be taken well. "His right arm has been broken in three places, his shoulder shattered. He has blood infection from the wounds on his back that have gotten infected and he's lost blood. There is more but I don't think you need to hear about those."

"I know how bad he's hurt, Cas. I felt that the first time I touched him before pulling the spike out of his hand from where they tried to crucify him. I don't need a play by play. I need him healed by someone more in the light than I am right now," Dean rolled his eyes, sensing Jody before she appeared in the door. "You're an angel. You owe him more than you owe me for your screw-ups. Heal him."

"I…can't heal him," the Angel replied slowly, grimly and with apology in his eyes. "I'm sorry."

**TBC**


	3. Chapter 3

**Still His Brother**

**Chapter Three**

The air in the room suddenly began to thicken as Dean's eyes narrowed and began to darken Jody stepped in to tap the trench coat wearing guy who'd appeared out of nowhere in the middle of her telling him exactly what Dean had said on the shoulder.

"Are you an Angel?" she asked curiously. "As in a being of omnipotent power?"

"Yes but my grace is waning so I no longer have the power that I once did," Castiel told her while feeling the change in Dean as his words sank in. "And I was never omnipotent."

"Uh-huh," Jody breathed, seeing the way the elder Winchester's jaw was clenching and having no doubt what was about to happen. "Good luck," she told Castiel while stepping more into the room to take the wet cloth to begin to bathe it over Sam's face.

Dean wasn't fully surprised to have heard the Angel's words. He'd been hoping he didn't hear them but they didn't surprise him. "Can't or won't?" he asked in return, feeling his temper burning slowly even as he kept his palm light when he touched Sam's chest.

"Dean, you know that if I had the power that I would willing give what Grace I have left to heal Sam but…he is injured to the point where even if I were to burn this body out it would still not heal him enough to save him," Castiel told him grimly. "I…will ask Hannah or one of the others if they would heal him but…"

"But to most of your pals Sammy's still Lucifer's vessel, he's still tainted because of the demon bitch and let's not forget they probably still hold the whole soulless thing against him too so basically the kid who has helped to save the world more than once, cleaned up more than one of your messes isn't good enough to be healed by your kind," Dean's lips curved in a sneer. "Y'know what I always found amusing when you guys invaded our lives, Cas? Sammy was the one who believed. Sammy was the one who used to pray to God, to the angels. Sammy believed in the images that Pastor Jim put in his head about halo wearing dudes with harps and white fluffy wings. It took one meeting with you and that other dick to show him that it was all lies.

"He got used by Ruby because he wanted to save me. Your side could've protected him from all of that by getting involved sooner but then that would've ruined the whole master plan of brother against brother that your bosses had until I ruined that plan anyway," he snorted in disgust, furious that no matter what his brother did it was always those things that came back to hurt him. "You do realize that if my brother dies because none of your so called Heavenly pals would help him over things not even fully his fault that I will see Heaven fall."

Dean's voice dropped as his eyes flashed briefly but stayed a deep green. He leaned down to whisper something to Sam when he whimpered in pain, rubbing his hand over his hair before he took a step away from the bed. "Try to cool him down. Castiel and I need to have words upstairs."

"Dean, don't go frying an Angel," Jody warned, risking her life when she grabbed his wrist just as his phone went off. "Expecting someone?"

"No, and I really don't want to talk to him either," Dean was glaring at the Angel as he jerked his phone out to hit the speaker button. "What? Busy here."

"Yes, I'm sure you are, Squirrel," Crowley twirled a pen around while picturing the scene he was interrupting. "I also figure by this point you're about ready to unleash that rather impressive power on poor Castiel who has probably just told you that he doesn't have enough mojo left to heal Moose. Am I right?"

Dean frowned while Castiel shot the phone a dark look and Jody rolled her eyes at the voice. "Crowley, I swear if you have me bugged and I find it I will rip your throat out through your nose!" he growled. "What do you want?"

"Well since Castiel is about the only halfway normal feathered bugger upstairs that I can even remotely stand I'd hate to see him blasted out of existence just because he's running low on battery power," Crowley ignored the growl he got to sigh. "You can heal Moose yourself, Dean. You don't need a bloody angel to do it. You can do it and avoid the ever pesky being indebted to me, Heaven, or someone else issue."

"Come again?" Dean eyed the frowning Angel as he sat back down beside Sam to grab for his left hand before it slapped blindly at Jody. "How can I heal Sam? Demon here. I didn't think the healing thing went with this gig."

"Yes, well it's not exactly a widely known aspect of a demon's power but if one wanted to, depending on the strength of said demon, we can heal," Crowley knew it was a left over effect of too much human blood that he was sharing this news with his less than favorite hunter but hell he also knew this was for Moose so he'd throw the kid a bone. "I could heal the kid myself but somehow I don't think either you or the lovely Sheriff Mills, hello darling, would let me within five feet of him right now…or am I wrong?"

"Hey! I don't know what Dean might do but I've been dousing demons with Holy water for days keeping Sam safe!" Jody shot a sour look toward the phone and the demon that had tricked her into a date and then nearly killed her. "You show your face anywhere near him, I'll stick this super soaker water gun filled with the stuff so far up your demon ass you'll look like one of those cherub fountains!"

As Crowley seemed to be trying to find a comeback to that rather interesting image, Dean was trying not to smirk and laugh at the same time while Castiel was just blinking at the human woman's guts to speak to the King of Hell like she just had.

"Huh, okay there's an image I didn't need," Dean muttered, still unsure. "Are you telling me the truth, Crowley?" he demanded. "I know I took some pain and healed a rib or two but…you're telling me that I can heal him without having to deal or threaten either an angel or a demon or a witch?"

"Bloody hell, stop with all the threatening!" Crowley blew out a breath, seriously regretting what he'd done by letting Dean take the damn Mark of Cain. "Most demons were scared of hearing your name when you were still a bad-ass, scarier than nearly everyone else hunter. Now since it's gotten out some what you might be I'm lucky to get my boys out from under the covers. They're scared you might show up!"

"Give me a straight answer then. Can I use this power to heal my brother?" Dean demanded, ignoring the way Castiel and Jody were looking at him to focus on the phone when he dropped his tone. "Lie to me, give me one wrong piece of advice or tell me the wrong thing and it ends up hurting him and not only will I make your life even more of a living Hell than I plan to but I will also go find Gavin."

Crowley went silent for several long moments as if debating calling Dean's bluff but then he remembered what he had said to Castiel one time about everyone underestimating those denim clad nightmares and he knew that Dean, now especially, would not be bluffing. He knew that he would hunt down his time displaced son and probably kill him if Crowley screwed with him now.

"So it seems that we both have a certain someone we'll need to keep safe," he replied slowly before blowing out a hard breath. "I'm not leading you on, Dean. All it'll take is your concentration locked on Sam and a place where you'll be able to be safe. A place with power would be ideal…or that dim, dark little hole in the ground you boys burrowed into. There's a lot more to a few of those rooms than it looks.

"I know you're pissed at me for leading you on about the mark but I meant when I said that I didn't fully know it would affect you the way it did. I also meant when I told you that there's going to come a time when you might have to trust me or work with me cause I'm picking up rumors of a new player on the board," Crowley told him seriously. "Now, do you plan to drive Moose back to your little home in the ground or ask the waning Energizer Angel there if he has the power to teleport him or…can I offer assistance in that at least?"

"Jody will hurt you if you show up, Crowley," Dean replied firmly. "I'll decide that later but you better go to ground if I find out you've lied to me. Now don't call me again," his finger pressed the disconnect button to throw a hard stare at his former ally. "Is he telling the truth? Can I heal Sam?"

Castiel looked between the brothers, considering his answer carefully. He had no doubts what would happen if he lied. "Yes, with the powers Cain's mark has given you it is possible for you to heal Sam," he confirmed, choosing to add as he knew what Dean's next question would probably be. "The powers won't harm him. He's your blood. I honestly don't think you could ever turn on Sam unless you were possessed by another. But…Dean, this will not make you popular."

"Saving my brother or being whatever I am?" Dean countered, smirking. "Cas, none of my choices have ever made me popular with the brass up top. That won't ever change but I'm also not letting Sam die if I can stop it when you can't help me. Now, is there anything else you want to say before you poof out of here?"

There was a lot that Castiel could have said but he knew that no matter how much he apologized for his past errors that it wouldn't be enough for Dean. He also couldn't blame the man for those feelings. "I will find a way to renew my grace and once I do I will help Sam in his efforts to reverse this. This is not what my Father would have wanted for either of you."

"I won't have Sam completing those trials, Cas," Dean had made that plain to his brother. Out of all the plans that Sam had rambled off that night it was the mention of completing the trials, curing him, and possibly dying that had helped to make Dean's decision to put distance between them. "You have access to all of Heaven's records and scrolls or whatever you guys write on. You find him some other way to try to reverse this but you also better make sure no one from your side decides to target him because if anyone, angel or demon, touch Sam again I'll use this damn blade and tear both Heaven and Hell down!"

There was silence in the room as Castiel nodded his understanding before vanishing in the soft flutter of wings, leaving Dean and Jody alone with Sam.

"So…got an idea in that hardhead or are we winging it?" the Sheriff of Sioux Falls asked curiously, ducking a random hand that tried to push her away in Sam's sleep. "Is he always this unreasonable when he's hurt?"

"No, just if it's someone other than me touching him," Dean offered a small, dry grin while catching the hand to fold it over his brother's chest, holding it there until the younger man calmed down again. "Ever since he was little he got used to it mainly being me who took care of him if he was sick or hurt," he explained while planning the best way to do what needed to be done.

"Our Dad wasn't around much…fine, at all. He was pretty obsessed with hunting and used to take us with him. Sam was pretty much…mine from the night of the fire when he was six months old. When Dad met Bobby he did start to leave us with him or Pastor Jim, the man who actually ran this church, but kids were not Bobby's element and even at that young an age I was sort of…possessive of my baby brother so it still ended up being me taking care of Sammy," he carded his fingers back through Sam's hair again to feel a spark of power lighting inside him as if it knew what needed to be done. "Sam got used to me picking up the pieces or stitching him up. Even now with a lot of crap between us when he gets hurt this bad or if he gets sick it'll be me he lets close to him over anyone else. It's nothing against you. It's just how he is."

Jody had been given the back story of the Winchesters by Bobby one night so she had an idea of just how much responsibility a young boy had taken for his brother and how much he was still willing to take even now. "Do you think you can help him?"

"I'll heal him or someone else will die trying," Dean replied firmly, looking at Sam before lifting his eyes up to Jody's. "You following me back or heading for home?"

"Don't take this the wrong way, hotshot," she began with the usual tone she gave Dean when he said something that would have had Bobby slapping him in the head. "I'm not leaving Sam alone until he tells me that he can take care of himself. Can he make a drive?"

"After some sleep and I see what I can do he should be able to make it back to the bunker," Dean wouldn't move Sam from the church unless he was certain of that. "Jody…thanks for coming for him," he glanced over at her while shrugging out of his jacket. "Sam's never had a lot of people that would drop everything and come if he called them. The few we did have are dead and I know this was out of your area so thanks."

Deciding to leave the brothers alone while she went up to grab Sam's duffel and bring it down, Jody stood but placed a hand on Dean's shoulder. "I promised Bobby to look out for his boys. I happen to actually like you two despite the trouble you get me into so I'll always come for him…you too."

"Thanks," Dean smirked, waiting until they were alone to let a shaky breath out. "Okay, Sammy, let's see what I can do for you."

Jody had hurried up to grab the duffel in the hopes that there were clean clothes inside in addition to whatever the hell a hunter might carry in a duffel bag that she was almost certain weighted almost as much as she did.

By the time she got back to the boys she had to blink a few times to remind herself that she'd left her nice safe and sane world a long time ago so this shouldn't really be a shock but it still rocked her to see Dean's eyes black as he focused on Sam's face while his hand moved slowly over the broken bones of his brother's right arm and shoulder.

She noticed that Sam was still asleep but the pain he was in from bones knitting back together, or moving back into their correct place could be seen by the way his facial muscles were tensing and by the way his left hand was gripping the hand that held his tightly.

Jody also noticed the fine sheen of sweat of Dean's face which told her that using these new powers to heal wasn't as easy as that damn ass on the phone had made it out to be.

"I brought his duffel down. Do you want me to look and see if he has clean clothes or something?" she asked when she saw Dean's eyes flick back to a dark green; worried when she also caught some pain there as well. "Dean? How is this healing thing working?"

"Not well," Dean grunted, shaking his hand out but did notice Sam's arm could move now and he noticed the shattered shoulder had also healed. He planned to heal the inner bleeding next so the ride back to the Men of Letters bunker wouldn't kill his brother as he tried to heal him. "I'm hoping the bunker will be a better place or hell, even the Impala since to Sam the car has always been more of a home to him than any other place we've stayed at except maybe Bobby's place."

Dean looked over to see Jody going through the duffel looking for clothes, smirking as most of his brother's duffel seemed to be filled with books, weapons, and other things that Sam must have stuffed in there to help him do research on having a demon for a sibling when his eyes saw something fall out of a side pocket on the inside that he'd never noticed before.

Leaning down to reach for the black bag that had fallen, Dean frowned as he swore he felt something warm both in the bag and his body and felt his chest tighten when Jody pulled out a folded piece of paper that had also been in the bag with Dean's name written on it.

"There looks to be other notes too but that looks the newest," she stared as he took it slowly. "Do you want me to leave while you read it?"

"No, I think I know what it'll say plus this is the new me," Dean smirked with a touch of his old cockiness. "Nothing Sammy could write will get to me. Keep digging until you find a shirt or jeans or something cause these jeans are shot."

Dean opened the small bag to dump the contents into his hand. As the silver ring that he once wore fell into his palm he sighed but when the next item dropped out that he felt a lump form in his chest because Dean remembered the day he'd dropped the small bronze amulet into a motel trash can five years earlier.

The bronze horned amulet had been given to him by his brother one Christmas. It had been a symbol of their bond as brothers. There had only been one time that Dean hadn't worn it and that was after his deal came due and he'd died but as soon as Sam could he'd given it back. He'd worn it until the day too much doubt and crap had finally came between them and Dean lost that faith in them.

He had dropped it and if he tried he could still see the pain in Sam's eyes that day. In the time since, Dean had never stopped regretting that decision but had never guessed that his brother had picked it up and still had it.

In the time that Sam was in the Cage or Dean had thought his brother was in the Cage and had the duffel locked in the trunk of the Impala, he'd never been able to work up the guts to look through it because it had hurt too much.

Now as he stared at it sitting in his palm, a warm familiar weight, he held it out by the black cord to stare at it while suddenly realizing what Sam's hand had been trying to reach for in his restless sleep every time his hand lifted to Dean's chest.

"You…used to wear that, didn't you?" Jody asked quietly, watching the emotions she wondered if Dean knew were flickering over his face at the sight of that amulet.

"Yeah," Dean's voice was oddly hoarse. He took the note to open it with a hard mask that he hoped covered the sudden burst of emotion that he swore he shouldn't be able to feel as he read his little brother's handwriting.

"'_This is the fourth time I've rewrote this note. I suppose I should burn the others but I left them for you to find when you hopefully find this one, Dean. I'm not really sure if either the note or what's in the bag will matter to you as you are right now but I hope if my ultimate plan pans out that they'll matter to you again. If not…then burn them when or if you burn me_.'"

"Sonuvabitch," Dean gritted, realizing that he'd been wrong yet again. His little brother's note was indeed going to bring out the emotions that only Sam had ever been able to bring out in him.

"'_I know when you dropped the amulet you said to leave it, but I couldn't. I couldn't let myself believe that everything we'd gone through or had could be destroyed by the lies and manipulations of the Angels. Dean, I don't know everything you saw that day in Heaven after Roy and Walt shot us but I know those weren't my memories of what I considered important._

"'_My Thanksgiving? Was one where you were 14 and did your best to scrimp and save from what little Dad left you with to buy a little roasted chicken, a jar of pickles, and my favorite dessert. You gave me Thanksgiving even though we were alone in some run-down dump because as usual Dad didn't come back like he'd promised._

"'_My favorite memories or what I would consider as my Heaven? They'd be of times you and I spent together as brothers. The time in Bobby's back lot that you taught me to ride a bike that you'd rebuilt. The day you let me drive the Impala the first time or you taught me to play pool and let me win to give me confidence. There was never a time when we were apart that I truly enjoyed it…not even my time in Stanford because everything I accomplished there I wanted to share with my big brother. You helped me be able to make the grades to earn that full ride and the time I was there half the time I hated it because by choosing to be normal I'd lost the one person who was proud of me for it._

"'_I know I did a lot of things wrong after you went to Hell. I know I was led on and lied to but I believed that I had to able to get you back, to make it right. I…I was wrong and even after all this time those mistakes, or the mistake of me not dying back in Cold Oak is still costing me. I picked up the amulet and kept it because I hoped that one time you'd want it back, that maybe you'd forgive me for those mistakes…that you'd be my brother again._

"'_I can probably guess why you never found it after Detroit because it was clear that you never went through my bag. It took me months after you died to be able to. Hell, I still don't think I would've been able to touch yours even now. I rewrote this after I got my soul back. I was afraid the wall would fall and I'd be unable to tell you stuff or give it back. I did it again after you got back from Purgatory and we were fighting because I figured one of us would leave. I was planning on making sure you found it before I…left. This time I'm writing it before I either find Cain and make him take it back or I find you long enough to cure you with my blood. I know it'll kill me but I'd rather die knowing I'd brought you back than live with the fear of ever crossing paths with you if you go full on dark._

"'_If you find this, then I hope something I've done has worked. You said you were proud of us. I hope you still are. I hope…you'll be proud of me. I know you used to say no chick flick moments but if this is the last thing you'll read from me then I'll say this…I love you, Dean. Thanks for being my brother and for doing everything you did for me growing up and even now. Bye. Sam._'"

By the time Dean finished reading the note he knew that Jody had silently slipped out to give him privacy and for that he was grateful as he reached up to wipe his face free of tears he didn't think he could still shed. "I am proud of you, little brother. And I've forgiven you for those things you thought I held against you a long time ago," he slipped the black cord back over his neck to feel the familiar weight of the amulet settle back against his chest. "I…what the hell?"

Dean had felt the amulet warm but as soon as it was put back on it felt like his whole body went hot, then cold then warm when a strong burst of buried emotion nearly swamped him and left him shaking until it finally passed.

It was only then that he noticed the hand that had touched Sam's chest had a soft glow emitting from it and the bruises and open wounds that had been there still were now gone but he'd felt none of the earlier strain. "I'll be damned," he muttered and wondered if there wasn't more to the amulet than just when Cas had said it could find God. "You're gonna be fine soon, Sammy," he promised quietly.

**72-Hours Later: Men of Letters Bunker:**

Dull pain and a grumbling stomach woke Sam Winchester after what seemed like days of agony and sickness. He recalled the demon attack, he recalled escaping their first attack to make it to Pastor Jim's church where Jody had come to help him. Sam also recalled the last demon attack there, his hand being impaled and then hearing his brother.

It was thoughts of Dean that made him struggle to wake up fully now because he thought he'd been hearing his brother's voice as well as the low familiar rumble of the Impala's engine and old cassette tapes that Sam knew by heart but had missed terribly.

Sam thought he had memories of seeing his brother in the church back in Blue Earth but as he woke up to rub his eyes and see he was back in Dean's room at the bunker he frowned in confusion.

How had he gotten back to the bunker? Had Jody brought him back? Sam knew he'd been hurt to the point he figured he was dying and he also remembered that Jody didn't know where the bunker was so that ruled that theory out.

He was in the process of pushing himself up when it hit him that he was pushing with his right arm; the arm that had been broken along with his shoulder. He glanced down to realize his fingers were curled around soft leather to also know that hand had a hole in the palm but yet now other than some tight muscles and minor bruises he seemed healed.

The jacket distracted him because he'd woken up once or thought he had to feel the familiar leather that still smelled of gun oil, leather and Dean despite his brother not wearing the old jacket that had once belonged to their Dad. It, along with the Impala and his brother's amulet, had always been Sam's version of comfort when he was sick or hurt.

Dizzy and still in minor pain, Sam debated on getting up or falling back onto the bed that had been Dean's pride and joy after they moved into the bunker when a noise from somewhere else made him decide to try to stand to go see what was going on.

"Whoa," he shot a hand out to steady his suddenly wobbly legs, falling back to the bed with a low curse.

"If you try to get outta that bed I will sic Jody on your ass so fast it will make your head spin, little brother."

Sam knew his head had jerked toward the voice but the sudden movement caused the room to spin and he felt himself fall forward until a firm hand landed on his shoulder to support him. "D-Dean?"

"I'd say that takes care of Jody's worry about brain damage except it's my name that always comes out of your mouth after you've been unconscious or sick so tell me something else to let me know that big brain of yours is still functioning." Dean had felt the change in the bunker and had almost known Sam was waking up so he left Jody Mills to come face his hopefully fully awake and fully coherent brother.

Dean had healed enough of Sam's more serious wounds so he felt safe enough putting his brother in the Impala for the drive back to Kansas and the bunker. Driving back with Jody tailing them in her truck felt easier for Dean and he knew it was because of who was with him.

Whenever he drove by himself or with someone else in the passenger seat it felt weird. To him the Impala didn't feel right without his tapes and his little brother riding shotgun bitching about his music.

He'd kept the music turned down low but always had it playing when he noticed that whenever the classic rock stopped Sam would tense or shift in his sleep so Dean made sure to always have the music on.

Only once did he have to pull over and that was when Sam started getting sick due to the infection that he still hadn't wiped out. After that and as his brother's fever spiked before finally breaking, Sam would either lay with his head against the window like always or he'd move over to use Dean's shoulder for a pillow like he'd been prone to as a kid and not feeling good.

When Sam's fever spiked to the point his brother was shivering, he'd pulled over to ask Jody to go dig through the trunk until she came across his old leather jacket. It had also been something he'd stopped wearing after Sam had gone into the Cage.

The moment he laid it over Sam, his brother had calmed down and burrowed into the soft leather more while mumbling something that made Dean smirk. "Driver picks the music, Sammy," he'd returned simply.

Now as he sat on the edge of his bed where he'd put Sam once getting to the bunker, Dean looked to see his brother still looked pale but his fever had finally come down and his pulse was back to normal.

After putting the amulet back on Dean had noticed that healing Sam had become easier. He'd also noticed that Sam responded better to it the one time he'd laid his hand over a welt on his back in the Impala. Dean had finished healing welts, cuts and other wounds once he'd gotten Sam settled in his room instead of Sam's and then just watched to be sure there was no side effects.

Dean ignored calls from Crowley and a few from Castiel. He only left Sam to shower and go see what the hell his brother had let happen to the kitchen when a comment from Jody about some strange substance on the ceiling had him bolting into the room that he'd once found a lot of peace in.

"Give me a birthday or something, Geek boy," Dean carefully moved his hand from Sam's shoulder to the back of his neck, letting his fingers squeeze just slightly and was a little surprised not to feel any tension like he thought he might.

"January 24, 1979," Sam muttered, keeping his eyes closed until his stomach stopped rolling and letting himself start to believe he really wasn't imagining this.

"That's my birthday, genius. I kinda meant your birthday," Dean snorted but then remembered that it was normal for them to recite the other's birthday rather than their own. "How do you feel, Sammy?" he asked, still concerned.

Sam considered that, giving up the idea to stand when his brother's hand helped to nudge him back to the pillows. "Like I was run over by a truck but not as bad as I thought I would considering what I think I remember happening," he replied, hearing a bottle open and was pushing up enough to accept the pills and water he knew would be coming. "You real, Dean?" he thought he'd asked that one other time but was now more awake to believe the answer.

"Yeah, I'm real," Dean assured him, letting his hand rest over the shoulder that had been shattered to be sure all the bones and muscles had healed. "Though if you can't tell me what the hell hit my kitchen you might be wishing I wasn't. Dude, what the hell is on the ceiling? And I think Jody used the shotgun on something inside the fridge," he shook his head. "I haven't been gone that long."

"Oh…I think something I might've accidently summoned possessed the fruit salad in there," Sam winced a little but could feel warmth spreading along his arm until the leftover pain disappeared. "The ceiling wasn't my fault though. Cas was here, tried to make something for me to eat cause I was brooding and it…exploded."

"Huh," Dean muttered and closed his eyes as if asking for patience. "Neither one of you are allowed near the kitchen. If I cook you better eat cause Jody's going into full mother hen mode and she's bonding over the phone with Mrs. Tran who is also threatening to come up here…and what the hell do you mean something you accidently summoned? I thought we said no summoning in the bunker since we don't know what else might pop up?"

"I…was practicing," Sam shrugged and slowly opened his eyes to find familiar green eyes staring at him. "Hey," he murmured.

Dean recognized the quiet unease as Sam being unsure of what was happening and also how long he was probably staying. "Hey, Sammy," he carded his fingers back through Sam's hair to get it out of hazel eyes that were finally clear and not glassy with shock. "Do you remember hearing anything I might've said back at Jim's church?" he asked, needing to know what Sam remembered and what he might have to go over to reassure his brother.

"Some," Sam admitted. He did recall hearing Dean talking to him before. He was about to speak again when his eyes suddenly caught sight of what was hanging back around his brother's neck and immediately went still. "You…you found it?" he asked softly, fingers lifting as if to touch the amulet but holding back.

"It fell out when Jody was tearing your bag apart looking for clothes," Dean nodded, watching Sam's face to gauge how he felt when he saw the hesitant movement of his fingers. "I also read all those notes that came with it. I…made a mistake when I dropped it that day, Sam. I was just so raw that I didn't stop to think that what I'd seen there might be lies. It wasn't until that night and I watched you sleep that I realized that Zach had probably played me again. By the time I knew what I'd done it was too late or so I thought. I thought this was gone."

Dean's fingers touched the amulet before reaching to move Sam's hand up, feeling the moment those long shaking fingers grasped onto it like Sam had almost always done to reassure himself that he wasn't alone and that everything was alright between them.

"A day hasn't passed in five years that I haven't wanted this back. Why didn't you tell me you had it?" he asked but knew the answer even before watery puppy dog eyes lifted to hold his.

"I…I thought you still didn't have faith in me as your brother and I was afraid to find out that you really didn't want it," Sam murmured, running the horned amulet through his fingers and was surprised to feel it warm. "Now I wasn't sure if you'd want it or…"

"Do you remember the part where I told you that despite being like this that I am still your brother?" Dean saw the nod. "I meant that. I know this will be weird and I won't say that everything is the same with me cause it ain't, but what is the same is I still happen to look at you like my annoying little brother so…I guess that means you're stuck with me."

Sam swallowed thickly, unsure if his brother was serious or not. "You'll…stay?" he asked.

"I left you for less than a month and there was possessed fruit salad in the fridge and I don't know what on the ceiling. If I don't stay I'm afraid of what else might happen to this place," Dean scoffed, fingers light when they squeezed Sam's neck and caught the faint smile that he hadn't realized he'd been missing since waking up like this. "Just promise me one thing?"

"What?" Sam yawned, letting go of the amulet to touch the jacket as it was spread over him again. "I won't promise not to try to reverse whatever this is so don't ask me that."

"Yeah, I figured that would be how you felt but no, that's not it," Dean waited until Sam was settling back and looked to be willing to rest instead of getting up. "Promise me that however you try to fix me that it won't involve you completing that final trial. There has to be another way to try and since I'm not possessed or haven't lost my soul I don't know if that would work anyway," he saw as that dawned on Sam. "Just promise me that and I won't stop you from looking for another way."

Sam hadn't considered that because he still wasn't sure what his brother was yet. He nodded slowly. "Okay," he hesitantly agreed, yawning as he watched Dean's hand settled over his and began to realize the warmth that seemed to take the leftover pain mainly came when his brother touched him. "Who…healed me?" he asked warily, a sneaking suspicion beginning to form in the back of his head. "Castiel couldn't because I was hurt too bad and you better not have made a deal with Crowley or…"

"Please. He won't come close to us so long as Jody's around after she threatened to shove that water shooter up his ass," Dean snorted, smirking at Sam's raised eyebrow. "Yeah, the image that gives is scary," he paused to consider this next piece of detail. "No, no deals were involved and no, Cas couldn't heal you. I did."

"You didn't fry…" Sam's question died off to lift his eyes back up to see Dean actually looking uneasy with that admission. "You did what?" he stared when it clicked. "You healed me? How? I didn't think demons could heal people like that?"

"Crowley said it's not a highly advertised thing but if they're strong enough then they can if they choose to. He said I can heal more because I'm not a normal demon and Cas said I can because you're my brother," Dean touched the amulet again to shrug. "It got easier after I put this back on."

"Uh-huh," Sam was still working over the shock that Dean could heal him when the comment about the amulet was heard and he began to silently ponder a few ideas that he might have to talk to Castiel about. "So…are you okay?"

Dean blinked before smirking. "Still some kind of demon, kiddo," he shifted so he could prop his back up against the headboard, sitting beside Sam like he used to do when getting his restless sibling to stay in bed required sitting with him. "If you mean am I alright from healing you or kicking demon ass for what they did to you? Yeah, I'm good there. Crowley says there's a new power rising in the East or something like that."

"Wonderful," Sam muttered, tired but not wanting to sleep yet when he felt an arm go around his shoulders to bring him closer; his head resting on Dean's shoulder. "Someone worse than Crowley?"

"Isn't nearly everyone worse than Crowley, Sam?" Dean returned, eyes shooting up when he sensed they were no longer alone. "Sheriff."

"Keep your tough macho tone to yourself, Winchester," Jody rolled her eyes from where she stood in the door to watch him with Sam, deciding the younger man would be safe enough. "I finally scraped off whatever that crap was on the ceiling so now I'm heading to town to buy actual food since one of you still has to eat. Do we have a food preference?"

"Soup without noodles to start with, then he can go up to light broth with a few noodles, blue or orange Gatorade and some fruit," Dean replied on instinct and before Sam could speak. "Actually, give me 20 minutes and I'll make a list. I can make broth better than that canned crap…unless you managed to get the frozen whole chicken in the freezer possessed like the fruit salad."

While Sam shot his brother a sulk, Jody was staring at Dean as if she didn't know him. Seeing him mop the floor with a room full of demons didn't shock her as much as this side of him did. "And you call me a mother hen?"

"I think he's still nesting," Sam put in, feeling the fingers on his neck squeeze a little harder but knew he wasn't in danger and let himself relax more to go back to sleep. "What if I want a burger?"

"Dude! Right now you'll be lucky to keep broth down after however long it's been since you actually ate," Dean rolled his eyes, beginning to recite his list to an amused Jody. "You keep broth down for a day or two and we'll ease you into one of my burgers."

It took over an hour for Jody to get the list done since Dean kept adding stuff or Sam wheedled his way into having a couple things added. By the time she left the bunker to head for the nearby town she was almost certain she'd seen another change in Dean but wasn't sure what had brought it on.

Once they were alone again, Dean sat still to allow Sam to use his shoulder for a pillow while his brother's hand searched out and wrapped around the amulet to hold and Dean was reminded of so many other times they'd had moments like this.

"Hey. I am proud of us," he smiled as he saw Sam's smile. "I'm proud of you, Sammy."

"Thanks for coming back, Dean," Sam still had some pain but figured he probably would until he started moving around some.

"I came back because you needed help, Sammy," Dean wondered when the help did it get so easy to almost cross his own rules again. "I would've been there sooner if I'd've known they'd nailed you."

"Thanks, Dean," Sam could feel sleep coming on and actually didn't mind it now that he felt better that his brother would still be there when he woke up. "I…I…um…y'know…"

Dean grinned, nodding and gave another squeeze of his fingers to Sam's neck in the way that had always been the way he showed his brother how he felt without saying the actual words. "Yeah, me too, Sammy. Go to sleep. When you wake up I'll let Jody mother hen you while I make dinner…and maybe exorcise the fridge to be safe."

Once he was certain Sam was asleep fully, Dean took a slow breath to settle the emotions he could feel. He glanced to the arm that had the mark of Cain, that mark that he could have sworn didn't look as deep as it once had, and over to where he'd placed the blade.

Dean wasn't certain what the coming days would bring either of them. He wasn't sure where the next danger would come from but he was certain of one thing. "He's my brother and I will ruin the next son of a bitch who tries to hurt him," he vowed to the silent room and then let his own eyes close to rest until Jody got back from the store and he could see how being the demon that he was mixed with being a very possessive and over protective older brother.

**The End**


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